Snickerdoodle Cookies

These are great cookies.  The recipe is from "Two Peas and their Pod".  It is a cross between a shortbread cookie and a sugar cookie, but it has lots of cinnamon flavor, the cinnamon chips are the trick.

Ingredients:

• 2 ¼ C. all-purpose flour
• 1 t. baking soda
• 2 t. cream of tartar
• ½ t. salt
• 1 C. (2 sticks) butter, softened
• ¼ C. granulated sugar
• ¾ C. packed brown sugar
• 1 (3.4 oz.) box of instant vanilla pudding
• 1 t. vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 2 C. (12 oz. bag) Cinnamon chips
• ¼ C. sugar/½ t. cinnamon, mixed together for rolling

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, combine the sifted flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, beat the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla with a hand mixer.
4. Add the vanilla pudding and then add the eggs, one at a time and continue to beat.
5. Add the flour mixture about ½ C. at a time.
6. Stir in the cinnamon chips.
7. Scoop the cookie dough and roll into balls.  Roll the balls in the cinnamon sugar and then place on a cookie sheet.
8. Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
9. Remove the cookies from the cookie sheet and allow to cool on a baking rack for 2 minutes before serving.

Tips and Tricks:

• Cinnamon chips are fairly new, but the brand I used is made by Hershey's.  You can find them by the chocolate chips.
• I use a 1 ½ inch scoop to make a 3 inch cookie.
• I use parchment paper on my cookie sheets.

Pain Perdu Casserole

Pain Perdu was a breakfast that my Dad made for me ALL the time. Pain Perdu, is French for “Lost Bread”.  It was a way to “do something” with the stale bread that would be wasted.   This is a take on what my Dad made, but it is a recipe from "The Pioneer Woman".

 

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf crusty Sourdough or French bread, preferable stale

Custard:

• 8 large eggs
• ½ C. heavy cream
• 2 C. whole milk
• ½ C. sugar
• ½ C. brown sugar
• 2 T. vanilla extract

Topping:

• ½ C. flour
• ½ C. brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 t. cinnamon
• ¼ t. salt
• ½ C. (1 stick) butter, cold, cut into 16 pieces

• Maple syrup and powdered sugar, for serving

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, heavy cream, milk, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla.
3. Slice the bread into small bite size cubes and place in a 10” by 15” casserole dish or baking pan.
4. Pour the custard over the bread and allow the custard to soak into the bread for 10 minutes before putting the casserole dish into the oven. (You can press down on the bread, so it absorbs more of the custard.)
5. Make the topping while the bread absorbs the custard; combine all the topping ingredients in a medium size bowl with a pastry cutter, if you have one, just use a large fork, if you don’t.  The topping should look like small peas when you are finished.
6. Sprinkle the topping over the bread custard mixture.
7. Bake for 45 minutes for a soft pudding like consistency or for 1 hour for a firmer consistency.
8. Serve with powdered sugar and maple syrup.

Tips and Tricks:

• This can be made ahead of time.  Pour the custard over the bread and cover tightly and place in the refrigerator overnight.  Make the topping and place it in a Ziploc bag until you are ready to bake the next day.   
• This makes 10 large sized servings.